


The Water-Monster

by moon_hotel



Category: Kaiji
Genre: Gen, fairy tale
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-12-15
Updated: 2011-12-15
Packaged: 2017-10-27 08:59:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,296
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/294003
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/moon_hotel/pseuds/moon_hotel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Muraoka tells Kazuya a bedtime story. Done for a prompt on tumblr.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Water-Monster

**Author's Note:**

  * For [militarypenguin](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=militarypenguin).



“C’moooon, prez. I’m tired,” Kazuya whined, and that was really all it took. The next thing Muraoka remembered was standing by the sofa in his cluttered office, leaning over as Kazuya squirmed and made himself comfortable lengthwise on the couch.

“And a blanket,” he said, and Muraoka pulled down one of his sport jackets from the wall to spread it over him. “And a story.”

“Huh?”

“A story!” Kazuya insisted, pouting up at him, and Muraoka began to sweat. “C’mon, prez. You always said I get the VIP treatment, right?”

“U-uh, of course!” Muraoka plopped down in a chair next to the sofa and crossed one leg over the other, hemming and hawing. “Uh, let’s see…um…”

 _Once upon a time,_

“Khahaha! It’s a fairy tale!” Kazuya barked, and Muraoka practically jumped out of his seat. “I love fairy tales!”

“W-well,” the other man replied, adjusting his tie and grinning nervously, “that’s great!”

 _Once upon a time, there was a young man who lived at the edge of the wood._

 _He was the grown son of a poor family. The mother and the sister worked hard to keep their family together, but the son didn’t like to do very much. Sometimes he chopped wood in the forest to sell, but he kept getting distracted. His mother told him, “don’t wander into the woods! Don’t go in too deep!”, but he usually did._

“The kid’s a real idiot,” Kazuya scoffed. “The mom and sis should just leave him.”

 _So one day the son was in the woods, and he got distracted, again, and decided he was going to take a break. So he went deeper into the wood, winding off the path into a part of the forest he’d never been in, until he was hopelessly lost._

 _And there, in the middle of the wood, lived a monster…_

“Can I do the monster?” Kazuya piped up. “I want to come up with the monster.”

“S-sure, sure thing!” Muraoka said obligingly. 

 _And there, in the middle of the wood, lived a water monster. There was a big pond, and the monster lurked under the surface, waiting for prey to wander away from the path. It was hard to see in the murky deep, but it had great, wide eyes and sickly-pale skin, and big, big teeth that it liked to show all the time. But the scariest part of the monster was its hair,_

Kazuya snickered,

 _which was long and dark like seaweed._

 _Anyway_ , (Muraoka picked up,)  _the boy stumbled into the clearing. He was thirsty, so he knelt down to take a drink of water, not knowing that there was a monster that waited inside the pond. When he caught a glimpse of its huge eyes, he jumped backwards, surprised._

 _“Who are you?” he asked. He wasn’t really scared, though he probably should have been; more than anything else, he was curious. “Are you a monster?”_

 _“No, no,” it insisted, snickering from under the water. It slowly broke the surface and rose up, grinning at the young man. “I might look like one, but I’m really a good fairy. I let you drink out of my pond, didn’t I?”_

 _“You did!” the young man said, and bowed. “Thank you!”_

 _“Khahaha!” the creature laughed. “Well, you’ll still have to pay me. You’re able to pay, aren’t you?”_

 _“Pay?” the son echoed. “I’m sorry, I don’t think I can. My family doesn’t have any money.”_

 _“Well, that’s no matter. How about we play a game?” the monster—or was it a fairy?—said sweetly. “If you win, then I’ll let you drink as much as you like, whenever you come here.”_

 _“What about if I lose?” the son said, swallowing nervously. “Are you going to eat me?”_

 _“Of course not!” the creature laughed good-naturedly, and he relaxed. “I told you, I’m not a monster. You’ll just have to turn around and leave until you have something to pay me with, that’s all.”_

 _“That doesn’t sound so bad,” said the son. “I can always come back later! What are we going to play?”_

 _“Rock, paper, scissors.” The fairy—or was it a monster?—reached a long, pale arm out of the water, its hand clenched in a fist. “Here. Put out your arm, will you?”_

 _“Okay.” The young man did. “On the count of three.”_

 _They brought their hands up, then down, preparing. “One,” said the boy, “two,” said the boy, “three,” said the boy…_

Kazuya blinked his eyes behind his glasses, leaning forward, almost off of the sofa.

 _And then the monster’s hands seized onto him, its fingers tight like a vise around his arm. With a powerful pull it toppled the young man right into the water, dragging him into the dark, cold depths of the pond before he even knew what had happened. As he sucked in great mouthfuls of the water into his lungs, he heard the awful thing hiss into his ear._

 _“You should have known better,” it said. “Why would I play a game where I would lose either way?”_

Kazuya whooped and hollered. “And then it tore him limb from limb, didn’t it? So the blood burst out into the water like red flowers!”

“Yeah!” Muraoka exclaimed. “Did you like it, young master?”

“I sure did!” Kazuya said, grinning from ear to ear. “It needs more of an ending, though. Mind if I try?”

“Not at all. Go right ahead, bocchan.”

 _Unfortunately, this lame kid had a couple friends. His best friend was the son of a powerful and renowned huntsman. He had heard about how his friend disappeared, and so he went into the woods to see if he could figure out how._

 _He came across the monster, too, when he was thirsty and stopped for a drink. ”Who are you, drinking out of my pond?”  the monster asked, trying to sound as sweet as it had the other day._

 _“I’m the woodsman’s son!” he boasted. “And I’m looking for my friend. Have you seen him?”_

 _“Oh no, I’m sorry,” the creature said politely. But tangled up in its slick, hideous, greasy,_ filthy _hair was a scrap of his friend’s clothing, and the woodsman’s son knew that it was lying. “I’ll tell you if I see him, though. Now, about my water you’re drinking…do you have anything to pay me with?”_

 _“No,” lied the boy._

 _“Well, then! I suppose we’ll have to settle this with a game of rock, paper, scissors. If you win, then you can drink as much as you life. If you lose, then I’ll have to turn you away.”_

 _The huntsman’s son agreed, and so they both put out their hands._

 _“One,” said the monster,_

 _“Two,” said the monster,_

 _“Three,” said the monster…_

Muraoka leaned in. “Yeah?” he said, his eyes wide, his face drawing closer and closer to Kazuya’s. “Then what happened?”

Kazuya grinned.  _“And then the boy’s hand came down **smack** onto the monster’s head!”_ he boomed, slamming his hand into Muraoka’s head and twisting his thick fingers into the other man’s hair. Muraoka practically leapt out of his seat, crying out in pain as Kazuya forced his head down. “ _He took his axe and he **hacked**  and  **hacked**  at the monster’s neck until its head came clean off its body!”_

“B-bocchan!” Muraoka squealed. “Young master, wh-what are you doing?!”

Kazuya threw his head back and laughed a long, harsh, barking laugh before shoving Muraoka back and pulling his hand out of his hair. “ _And then he held the head up and walked all the way back to town and paraded around with it, and they lauded him as a hero!_ ” he cried, almost in hysterics. ”Man, prez, you really know how to tell a good story! You should do this for me every night!”


End file.
